Some artists discover AI and adapt. Nicoletta discovered AI and accelerated.
With over two decades of international advertising behind her, this Switzerland-based art director and graphic designer didn’t slow down, she shifted gears entirely. Today, her practice sits at the intersection of rigorous visual thinking and fearless experimentation, exploring styles, pushing boundaries, and asking questions that many creators prefer to avoid.
Among them: what does AI really show us about how we see women? And who gets to decide what normal looks like?
The following interview is a rare window into the mind of an artist who thinks as much as she creates. Expect sharp observations, unexpected anecdotes, a few concrete pieces of advice, and a perspective on AI-generated imagery that will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading.
Definitely a singular voice in the AI art space. One you’ll want to follow.
Could you introduce yourself?
Hi! I’m Nicoletta, a freelance art director and graphic designer based in Switzerland. More than twenty years in international advertising taught me to be sharp, think out of the box, and somehow, slowly, killed the fun… Then AI arrived and I became a kid again. That feeling is still there, every single day. And the art direction background? It never left. It’s in every image, every frame, every call I make.
How long have you been using generative AI? Do you use it professionally?
Almost two years in, and yes, I do offer it professionally. Gently. People here are still scared of it, don’t trust it yet, so 95% of my work remains traditional. But honestly? That doesn’t dampen anything. Since I started, my brain has been on permanent high. Flooded with ideas. ALL. THE. TIME.
Where do you find your inspiration?
Inspiration comes from all directions, I see potential everywhere, in everything. I’m a Midjourney addict, I need my daily dose. Moodboards are my secret language. Turner for the light. Geometric black and white to sharpen things up. Runway shows for color and light reflection. Japanese cinema, lately, a lot. None of this is new, but the way I combine it, that’s mine. I think of it like cooking. A little bit of this, a dash of that. The recipe can get long and complicated. But when it lands, you know. Oddly enough, it feeds my illustration work too. I get inspired more, let myself go more easily.
Is there a specific image, work, or moment that marked a turning point in your practice, a before and after?
I don’t think there’s one image or artist that created a lightning bolt moment. It all came very gradually, like a new way of thinking and seeing. The artists and painters I’ve always admired are still the same. But I learned to analyze them differently. What’s funny is that I loved surrealist artists as a kid, then totally dismissed that genre later, and now? This is what I love doing most. The beauty and weirdness of impossible people and situations. Recreating reality is not that fun. But traveling in another dimension, that’s cool.
Which AI tools do you use the most? Do you have a particular method? Any settings, workflows, or habits others might not suspect?
Midjourney is where the obsession started, but video has completely taken over my heart. That goes back to my art direction years, all those TV ads. I always wanted to sit in the director’s chair. Now I can. I’m a one-woman studio, and I go nuts. I used to lose so much time, energy and credits with mediocre prompts. Now I work closely with Claude to get the best results. And you don’t talk the same way to Runway or Kling. They each have their particularities. Finding your ideal workflow is key to get that perfect result.
If you had to start all over again, what’s the first thing you would skip? And what concrete advice would you give someone starting out today?
First mistake? Thinking you can figure it all out alone. I was lucky, I got access to some free online courses early on, and I tested. And tested. For hours, every day. You make mistakes, lots of them. But the progress you can make if you really commit? Astonishing. Find a community. That’s my one concrete advice.
LinkedIn is my main playground, it’s where I discovered incredible people from all over the world. Especially the House of Curiosity, which helped me enormously in the beginning: courses, advice, regular online meetings, you name it. Doing things alone and not sharing your struggles is simply not very constructive. https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-house-of-curiosity/ Also: keep your eyes open. All the time. Read posts, gather codes, steal workflows. TEST. I read somewhere that an AI creator (I wish I remembered his name) was always testing sref codes in Midjourney with one single prompt: “surreal poster design.” That’s it. Simple and fascinating. I’ve been doing it ever since.
There’s something I want to add, because it matters to me. I’m a woman working in a field that’s still largely male, and the images these tools generate by default reflect that. The women are beautiful in a very specific, very narrow way. Barbie proportions, impossible bodies, always pretty. Always. I fight that every day.
I push for diversity of age, race, body, role. Not because I’m on a crusade, but because if we don’t, nothing will ever change. Last year I worked on a series in tribute to Aimee Mullins and the genius of Alexander McQueen. Haute couture. Powerful. Beautiful. With a woman wearing prosthetics. And the tools fought me the entire way. Every model wanted to “fix” her. Make her pretty in the usual sense. It took everything I had to get there.
The men building these tools aren’t the villains. The bias is baked in, it’s the data, the training, the defaults. But we can push back. We should push back. Every single image is a small decision about what the world gets to see as normal.
Her Instagram: @nicolettadoesai
All images © Nicoletta Forni 2026
Leave a Reply